Do the Unthinkable Now

DO THE UNTHINKBLE NOW

by Dr. Haider Mehdi

Jis khayt say dehqan ko muyassar na ho rozi

Us khayt kay har gosha a gundum ko jilla do.

                                                Iqbal

No amount of political freedom can make up for the economic misery inflicted upon masses.

                                      Vladimir Lenin

Emma Chang, a young Chinese woman, owns a small jewelry shop in the grand and massive Dragon Mall in Dubai.  She is a skilled worker; in a matter of minutes Emma takes crystal beads, pearls and semi-precious stones and turns them into beautiful necklaces, earrings and bracelets.  She does not own an expensive home back in China – but she makes a reasonable middle class living and her denominator of emancipation and well-being is the degree of “happiness” that she acquires out of her work and social existence.

 There are thousands of Chinese like Emma in this business hub of a remarkably planned Chinese enterprise. 

China, in its rise to global economic-financial eminence, has mobilized the masses and trained them as skilled independent workers – the indicators of national development are measured in the rising levels of “happiness,” job satisfaction, a feeling of independence and increasing degrees of economic well-being.  This process has strongly impacted social mobility by transforming the class structure resulting in the emergence of a massive middle class society.

 The Chinese leadership has also stressed national cultural imperatives in its developmental planning.  This is precisely the sum total of China’s rise to a global power.

 By comparison, Pakistan remains stuck in a time warp inherited from the colonial past. There is absolutely no sense of “transformational” processes in nation-building.  We are strictly a class society with a backward political leadership and an economic structure that maintains at its core the ideology of class segregation on the basis of the socio-economic status quo. 

 The limited upwards social mobility is essentially based on a massively corrupt socio-economic-political system that has its roots and consolidates itself in nepotism, political favoritism, and cronyism.   The indicator of national well-being is still the stock exchange, which is controlled by a small vested interest group.  Our leadership also takes pride in obtaining foreign loans and unfavorable investment projects that are continually bankrupting the nation.  Consequently, a feasible nation-building process has yet to begin in Pakistan.

It is no wonder then that the majority of the deprived masses in Pakistan exist on a mere $2 a day, yet a Pakistani banker has paid the staggering amount of $60 million for a 60-room hotel in London (which is $1 million per room). The Pakistani landscape is littered with numerous examples of socio-economic segregation and a growing gap between the haves and have nots. 

 We will have to do the so-far “unthinkable” to survive as a nation.  We will have to espouse an economic doctrine of a transformational process that changes our indicators of economic development from the stock-exchange performance to increases in self-employment, enlargement of skilled labor and its efficient management, and expansion of employment in public and private sectors based solely on self-reliance economics and developmental models.  We should also strive for a relentless drive for upwards socio-economic mobility strictly managed and planned by engaging large segments of urban-rural populations. These sustained acts of the state must be directed towards and equitable socio-economic non-segregated class structure.  It is a tall order – but a manageable process; we have the shining example of China’s early developmental model and its success as our guiding principles. 

 But doing and going forward on this “unthinkable” process is not possible without major rectification of our past errors; we will have to de-link our strategic economic and foreign policy doctrine from the inherited systemic fault lines of our six decade-old alliance with the US.  We must come to realize and understand the demerits of our colonial bond with the west and the coercive baggage it carries against our national self-interests.

 We will have to start looking culturally and economically inwards, aligning ourselves with emerging Islamic Bloc nations and re-aligning our strategic foreign policy interests with interests in South and Central America, the Middle East, South Asia, China and elsewhere where countries are pursuing a progressive geo-political agenda of “resistance” against the US-West’s hegemonic imperialist objectives and goals.  We need to take massive U-Turns in our national policies. 

 Drastic steps in restructuring our national priorities and policies have become imperative now.  Our engagement with global-financial institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and other lending entities, need to be completely altered. Can we handle and manage default on our loans?  If not, loan modalities, conditions and agreements need to be overhauled and restructured.  We can no longer accept the IMF and World Band directives to run our domestic economic and developmental policies: We must heavily reduce electricity and power tariffs in Pakistan (the IMF insists on increasing tariffs on electricity).  Petrol, diesel and gas need to be subsidized to re-energize the national self-reliance economic cycle.  We need to expand public sector projects, finance micro-level investment schemes on a massive scale to organize the small community-level rural self-employment sector, and undertake skills development  training initiatives at local urban and rural centers. We must accelerate industrial development within a conceptual notion of public-private joint sponsorship and enterprises. 

 Roads, hydroelectric and coal-generated power, communication infrastructure development and planning must remain the state’s responsibility. Nation-wide housing, education and improvements in health facilities must receive very large state funding.  Pakistan needs to totally depart from its past socio-economic political parameters to a dynamic pragmatic approach to resolve its ailing national problematics. 

Do The Unthinkable!

DO THE UNTHINKBLE NOW

Nayyar Hashmey

IN THE FOLLOWING POST, Dr. Haider Mehdi raises some very pertinent points. Points that concern our current economic, administrative and social malaise. He suggests also a solution to fight the malaise

His write-up is unique in concept insofar as we have lot of thinkers and analysts, who day and night discuss our problems, our ailments and crises but never do they ever venture to suggest a solution. Dr. Mehdi’s analysis is different from them; he suggests a route, a guiding path, a solution for resurrecting the nation from its hapless situation. If the people [and there is a big IF] who have power could take some time to think over what Dr. Mehdi says, perhaps some change we could see in the sad state of our state of Pakistan.

Coming to some points mentioned by Dr. Mehdi particularly when he mentions the example of a Chinese lady working in Dubai - an individualistic skilled approach of a one woman enterprise who though is not very rich but at least is a self employed, self reliant and quite happy lady with her enterprise. And this is what makes nations strong.

Its interesting that what Dr. Mehdi mentions in his post, makes me recall my own assessments of the situation that once prevailed in the Peoples Republic of China when the republic was being led by its great fathers like Mao-Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Those were the days when ideological strife between the USSR and the P.R. was at its peak. The Chinese were blaming the Soviets for having adopted the course of revisionism whereas they themselves took pride in Leninism Marxism. Majority of young folk in those days thought the Chinese as extremists and the Russians more pragmatists. But I was of the opinion that behind the Chinese extremism there is a certain rationale. They were modernizing their industries, their military and their social structure and a massive overhaul was underway in almost every sphere, every aspect of life. 

In that massive overhaul certain excesses were indeed indulged into but by and large China kept this overhaul at a swift pace. The country started asserting its role. Exit the Maoists. Enter Deng Xiaoping and his team of liberal communists. China continued on its path of industrialization, not towing the line of the Russians, not towing the line of America but a pure Chinese approach toward the great reformation of Chinese society. 

We used to read a lot of media stuff about China then, the wrongs being committed, the people suffering under Chinese Communism and a lot of the dis- and misinformation the western propaganda mills were churning out against the Chinese. But the Chinese did not blink. They continued their path, the Chinese concept of handling things. Result? From a poverty ridden economy and an opium addicted nation, China emerged finally as a power to be reckoned with. The opium addicted Chinese of yesteryears started lending money to the world’s mightiest nation on earth.

I recall again my session with a Chinese visitor I had during the days I was associated with a US multinational. The Chinese friend told me we Pakistanis made a blunder in our agricultural planning. I was surprised. What blunder? I asked. So said the Chinese guest. See you are seeking collaboration to develop your agriculture and whom do you take as your guide, your consultant. The Americans. They are highly developed in agriculture no doubt . But don’t forget, they would never want you to develop your agriculture to an extent that they have no markets to sell their products or services, that instead of their customer they should turn you  into their own competition! 

If you do wish to develop your agriculture, your industry or your general economy, you should better seek collaboration with a developing country [like China] because we too have similar problems and similar endeavors. Both of us need to develop. If we progress, so shall you. If you do, so shall we. But as far as United States is concerned, they are already too developed, so why should they be interested in your development and self reliance. A simple logic but it did carry a weight. Alas! our leaders always took US as the only source to seek light from. Light they did take but plunged this country into darkness.

 

US is a great county indeed. Its forefathers were the source of light that beckoned the whole world once. A man like Abraham Lincoln was one such light. I love that man, he has always been my role model ever since my childhood days. But our leaders never ever did want to emulate the man, the source of light, the source of wisdom and a political philosophy to follow. Instead they took US  bosses of the like of Bush as their models whom they obeyed and obey they did blindly. Instead of going for innovation, perseverance and a goal oriented enterprise, the hallmark of US entrepreneurship; they went for a simple solution. Make the state a tool to extract as much funds as possible to fatten the family coffers. 

Of all the leaders we had in this category, the worst case was of our former Chief Martial Law Administrator-cum-Chief Executive-cum COAS-Cum-President-cum Everything. Unfortunately Mr. Asif Ali Zardari too did prove, he is no less inferior in wandering with a begging bowl than his erstwhile predecessor and dictator Pervez Musharraf.

 

To come out of the abyss, we have been thrown in, the guidelines provided by Dr. Mehdi are words in earnest. Read his write up and see how correct his analysis is. Its particularly so for our policy makers who should read this first of all.

 

“ Shayad ke uttar jaey dill main unke yahi baat”

Continued...http://wondersofpakistan.blogspot.com/2010/11/do-unthinkble-now-by-dr.html

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THUS ARE WE GOVERNED

President Asif Ali Zardari's alleged corruption - in the $2-3 billion range, according to the New York Times ---has not stopped his western patrons from funding, supporting and propping up the government of a man whose legacy has been marked by political unpopularity, instability, large scale graft and violence. No wonder that his party (Pakistan Peoples Party) is popularly referred to as the Permanent Plunder Party.

by Roedad Khan

The Zardari government treats truth as an insignificant value which can be suppressed, distorted and readily sacrificed to the will of power. Every now and then ministers make outrageous statements and spread blatant lies without the slightest regard for truth or principle.

Prime Minister Gilani told journalists recently, “There is no corruption in Pakistan.”

Everybody knows this government is corrupt from top to bottom, from the bark to the core. “Talks held with US on equal footing,” said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Everybody knows this government deals with the US with its “knees on the ground”. Nobody believes a word they say. The time for such stupid remarks is over. Such cruel jokes cannot amuse a country that is prostrate, exhausted, impoverished, humiliated, abandoned and no longer independent. 

Today we have a government that is not a government of the people, by the people, for the people. It is a criminal syndicate, an organised crime ring. If you want to know how this cabal plunders this poor country, visit the Supreme Court and watch the proceedings.

The farewell address of George Washington will ever remain an important legacy for small nations like Pakistan. In that notable testament, the Father of the American Republic cautioned that “an attachment of a small or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.” “It is folly in one nation,” George Washington observed, “to look for disinterested favours from another…it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character.” 

No truer words have been spoken on the subject. Pakistan is paying and will continue to pay a very heavy price for the folly of attaching itself to America. In this country democracy is only permissible when the results are favourable to America. Not otherwise.

We lost our independence years ago. The decolonisation of Asia, triggered by the Second World War, led to the retreat of foreign powers and the creation of a number of nation-states, including India and Pakistan, in the region. Of all the de-colonised, newly-independent countries, Pakistan is perhaps the only country which has lost its independence, has been re-colonised and turned into an American colony. Today it is not just a “rentier state”, not just a client state. It is a slave state, ill-led, ill-governed by a power-hungry junta and a puppet government set up by Washington.

“Liberty once lost,” Adams famously told his countrymen, “is perhaps lost forever.” We Pakistanis lost our independence and all our democratic institutions in October 1999 when General Musharraf toppled an elected government. Sadly, Pakistan also lost her honour and became a ‘rentier state’ on Musharraf’s watch when he capitulated, said yes to all the seven demands presented to him at gunpoint by Secretary Colin Powell and joined the “coalition of the coerced”. Regrettably, this situation remains unchanged even though the country is now under a democratic dispensation!

Marx once said: “Neither a nation nor a woman is forgiven for an unguarded hour in which the first adventurer who comes along can sweep them off their feet and possess them.” October 7, 1958 was our unguarded hour when democracy was expunged from the politics of Pakistan with scarcely a protest. The door was opened to Bonapartism. The result is the mess we are in today. Today there is not much independence or democracy left in Pakistan to celebrate.

A lesson to be drawn from the works of Gibbon is that Rome’s enemies lay not outside her borders but within her bosom, and they paved the way for the empire’s decline and fall – first to relentless barbarian invaders from the north, and then, a thousand years later, to the Turks. Many early symptoms that heralded the Roman decline may be seen in our own country today: the ever-present threat of military intervention in the affairs of state, concentration of power in one person without responsibility and accountability, contempt for the constitution and the Supreme Court, absence of rule of law, high-level corruption and greed. Today what is at stake is the survival of the state itself. At this time, all those who see the perils of the future must draw together and take resolute measures to secure our country.

“After joining the coalition of the coerced”, this is what we get: a spurious democracy brokered in Washington, an accidental president facing corruption and criminal charges, a rubber stamp parliament, a figurehead and corrupt prime minister, and to add insult to injury, Zardari regime – a facsimile of the Musharraf regime in civilian clothing. Potemkin villages dotted all over the country, the nation’s army at war with its own people; flagrant violation of our air space and national sovereignty by US aircraft, resulting in the killing of innocent men, women and children. No protest by our “democratic government”, no expression of remorse by our coalition partner in the so-called war on terror, no regret. The state of the federation is chilling. It would stun someone who went to sleep soon after Independence Day in 1947 and awakened in the present.

All philosophers tell the people they are the strongest, and that if they are sent to the slaughterhouse, it is because they have let themselves to be led there. In other countries there are men and women who love their liberties more than they fear persecution. Not in Pakistan. Here the elite who owe everything to this poor country do not think in terms of Pakistan and her honour but of their jobs, their business interests and their seats in a rubber stamp parliament. Surrender rather than sacrifice is the theme of their thoughts and conversations. To such as these talk of resisting foreign intervention is as embarrassing as finding yourself in the wrong clothes at the wrong party, as tactless as a challenge to run to a legless man, as out of place as a bugle call in a mortuary. What is tragic is the total failure of the politicians, the intelligentsia, the intellectuals, in fact, the entire civil society to comprehend the threat posed by surging American imperialism to the country’s very existence.

How can authentic democracy flourish in this country when people are not prepared to defend the core values of the nation – sovereignty of the people, inviolability of the constitution, supremacy of civilian rule, a fiercely independent, incorruptible judiciary, rule of law, an independent, incorruptible chief election commissioner, a neutral, non-politicised and honest civil service, social justice, egalitarianism and ruthless accountability of rulers? How can authentic democracy take root if people have no faith in their democratic institutions; if they do not value representative governments; if they are not prepared to make any sacrifices for its sake; if they are unwilling to defend it and if they are unable to do what it requires?

In this atmosphere of gloom and doom, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s act of courage, his defiance of the military dictator, promised a resurrection, a rebirth of the nation. Today he alone is the incarnation of the values for which we are fighting. Rarely, in the history of human endeavour, have so many owed so much to one single, solitary individual. The conspirators who have ganged up against him and the reborn Supreme Court must not succeed.

The writer is a former federal secretary. Email: roedad@comsats.net.pk

Source: The News International, Title Image: Siyasat PK

 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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RETURN OF MUSHARRAF, AND PAKISTAN’S BALKANIZATION

by Zainab Cheema

[If Musharraf survives disembarking from the plane in Karachi, then he is certain to finish turning Pakistan into America's great plantation.  The matter of Musharraf seems pretty clear--he is bringing the new American "Raj" to Pakistan.]

---

“This is clearly spelled out in our would-be Napolean’s campaign trail. If Musharraf has learned a lesson from his 2008 exile, it is that his sole duty is to be a loyal employee of US War Inc. Plunging Pakistan into chaos and fear is hardly a source of regret — it is that he didn’t do enough for the Pentagon while in office. He promises to immediately redress this in his second reign over the hapless country. In a speech given last year at Trinity College, he made headlines with his statements that Pakistanis will simply have to buckle up and accept casualties from the war on terror.”

At times, one may wonder at the seeming irrationality of US foreign policy toward Pakistan. When the floods struck, the US government was the most prolific donor, with USAID politicos expressing ready sympathy for the victims. American officials have declared that it is imperative to broadcast a beneficent image of the United States, worriedly citing polls that track the rise of anti-American sentiment in the Pakistani public. This is sandwiched by CIA bombing campaigns in Waziristan and hired mercenaries like Blackwater (now Xe) Corporation conducting terrorizations that alienate hearts and minds throughout Pakistan.

A fresh development in this schizophrenic saga is the return of Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf to the political arena. From his current perch in London, Musharraf announced on October 1 that he is creating a new political party — the All Pakistan Muslim League — to run for office in Pakistani elections. Proud collaborator of the War on Terror, his speechmaking shows that the destabilization and social terror he helped inflict hasn’t impaired his flair for the grandiose. “Today, God has given me the opportunity to set the tone for my political legacy,” he announced at his London press conference. “Come join me in changing Pakistan’s destiny. It is not an easy task but one we must work for, as Pakistan is ours.” Frederick Turner would be gratified — Manifest Destiny indeed.

But Musharraf’s return is hardly possible without international — or shall we abbreviate and say, American — support. As with Iraqi counterparts such as former spook Iyad Allawi, he belongs to the pool of collaborators who court funds and favor in order to return to their posts of glory in the Third World.

Let’s cue the rewind button here. Musharraf assumed power in October 1999 after a military coup deposing then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. However, his political fortunes changed only after 9/11. Prior to this, US officials had sneered at the architect of yet another military coup, admonishing Pakistan with the example of democratic India which was then on the fast-track to becoming America’s bosom-buddy. With 9/11, US representative in South Asia, Richard Armitage, offered Musharraf an elegantly simple choice — either join us or “we’ll bomb you back to the Stone Age.” Musharraf likes his cigars and whiskey, those macho pleasures of civilization, so he opted for the Faustian handshake.

But like the necromancer’s curse, the grizzly reality of Stone Age was not to be escaped. As Henry Kissinger once observed, while being America’s enemy is dangerous, America’s friendship is disastrous. A discarded Cold War ally, Pakistan’s coffers had been dry and creaky. With the handshake, military aid poured in to the tune of $7 billion. Besides graft and elaborate pay-offs for army officers, Musharraf was even able to reroute some of the funds earmarked for fighting the war on terror into F-16 fighter planes for Pakistan’s armed non-aggression against India, or as one independent observer put it, toys for his boys in uniform.

Pakistan’s politicos have always shown remarkable generosity in passing down the costs of their decision-making to the people. It is a self-evident truth, bordering on a truism, that Pakistan has been turned into a war on terror parking lot: 3000 American Special Forces units operate in Pakistan at the present. The cost? Aafia Siddiqui is only the most famous case of secret abductions and kidnappings run by the FBI and CIA throughout the country.

To elaborate, thousands of people simply disappear, after commando style raids on their homes during night-time or high-speed kidnappings in public. Human Rights Watch has flagged this unconstitutional disappearance, noting the pain and terror this spreads in families and neighborhoods. When Pakistani Special Forces and the FBI stormed Zain and Kashan Afzal’s home in Karachi, they broke through the concrete walls, tied up their ailing mother, and threatened to kill the family. The brothers’ 5-month sojourn in prison reaped a burst eardrum, lacerations on the back, and other souvenirs of US attempts to win the “hearts and minds” of the Pakistani public.

As it turns out, Guantanamo is a thriving industry in Pakistan and the foremost field of Pakistan-US collaboration. In fact, Pakistan’s police, army, and other law and order institutions have been subsumed in the American security apparatus. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan conservatively notes that 5,000 cases of police torture are connected with the war on terror. The methods used in these interrogations should be familiar as cinnamon-scented apple pie: beating, burning with cigarettes; whipping the soles of the feet; prolonged isolation, electric shock, denial of food or sleep; hanging victims upside down, and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters. The Iraq and Afghanistan playbook is clearly not gathering dust-mites.

And while most of the dirty work is done by Pakistani policemen, American interrogators stamp the whole operation as “Made in the US of A” in the victim’s minds. When Zain Afzal asked to be formally charged and tried in court, the FBI interrogators threatened to ship him to Cuba and told him, “We are the court.

HE WILL NEVER COME BACK

BEREFT OF HIS ARMOURED CLOTHES, DISCOVERED THE PEOPLE

THEIR GEN-KING HAD NO CLOTHES!

by Afzal Khan

Nearly three years ago, Musharraf peeled off what he would boastfully describe as his 'second skin"; which he used to scare his people into subjugation for eight years.

Bereft of his armoured clothes, the people discovered the king had no clothes and threw him out of power within three months, at the first opportunity they got at the ballot [which he failed to manipulate the way he had visualized].

Last Friday the leopard had new clothes masquerading as a democrat. Once again he was promising to be a reincarnated 'saviour' claiming that his blighted nation one more time needs him to "lighten" the dark horizon [to which he and his successors had fated it all these years].

In London and next day in Birmingham he exposed his real self spitting filth and muck against the opponents in bizarre language that he tried in vain to disguise as wit and humour.

It was a rude reminder that even after eight years in unbridled power and two in exile, the man can be anything but a politician. In fact his two appearances in two days in a bid to stage a comeback in national life are marked by some peculiar features. Initially it was billed as the day of launching a new political party. It then transpired that he was only "joining" the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) which had already been (secretly) formed at some unknown place and time.

The hierarchy of the leadership of the party has yet to be announced. Barring discarded people the likes of Sher Afgan or a
couple of cronies, hardly any political figure of consequence were present on the occasion. The ex-dictator is relying on dubious allegiance to his face book audience mainly from amongst expatriates. He is eyeing to attract some of those whom he had bestowed favours while in power or who could be lured by enormous funds he has stacked while in power. He is also banking on snatching the MQM leadership from Altaf Hussain who appears to be in dire straits and losing grip of the party in the aftermath of assassination of Imran Farooq.

A few weeks ago Musharraf invited a band of former ministers and leaders of PMl-Q to Dubai where he expressed his desire to land at one of the three main airports of the country provided at least one lakh people received him. One participant later told him he has his doubt about the number of individuals among in the Dubai meeting who would themselves be present there.

He says he fears nobody, not even the truth. But the commando is and has been at heart a coward, deceitful and treacherous with no sense of loyalty. Once he said he is neither Ayub Khan nor Zia-ul- Haq (indeed he was not as handsome as Ayub and as comely as Zia). But he aped both of them in every way while in power. Like them he told lies and broke every promise he made ranging from 3-year undertaking to a pliant Supreme Court to doffing his uniform.

Besides fathering the Muslim League through ISI, he also fostered religious alliance MMA giving it free hand at stumps to seize control of two provinces at the cost of PPP and PML-N by banishing their popular leaders and hounding followers through NAB. Like them he held fraudulent uncontested referendum (which he himself termed as "catastrophic") to secure a five-year presidential term under a drastically amended constitution providing for an extended period of authoritarian one-man rule. He introduced a system of diarchy under which only "responsibility" was transferred to the Prime Minister while himself wielding all power without being responsive to anybody. Unfortunately, like many other Musharraf legacies, Mr. Asif Zardari has also opted for the same system.

Next time for another term he bargained with Ms. Benazir Bhutto by agreeing to the infamous NRO that pardoned corruption in return for facilitation at presidential election in October 2007. Though he felt no compunction in shuffling three prime ministers within three years, he sustained the hoax of letting the assembly "complete its term", because only in this was he guaranteed his election, by an already existing manipulated majority. He also sought to keep his handpicked parties in power in general elections by shutting both popular leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, out of the country.

In London he asserted that he was laying out its 'programme and vision' that pledges to restore the country to "unity, prosperity and growth". He compared the performance of his regime at the time of the 2005 earthquake to the inept handling of the devastating floods by the present "dysfunctional" government. "Après moi le deluge," (after me the deluge) Musharraf seemed to be telling his country. He is hoping for the moment when things become worse to the extent the people begin to think about him.

Both events were held abroad as the man could not pick up courage to be amongst his countrymen at home whom he aspired to rule again. That speaks of volumes for the hollowness of the repeated claims that he would soon be back. It was testimony to the stark reality that the dictator has no place in the land he had brutalized, bludgeoned, divided and, in the ultimate analysis, even impoverished. While many retired generals have, in the past, tried their luck in politics and failed, Musharraf's is the rare instance of a military dictator bidding for a second term, this time in civvies.

During past few days Musharraf has triggered several controversies. His suggestion for military's constitutional role smacks of a secret desire to regain sympathy and support in that institution. He has chosen the party symbol a martial-looking falcon to underpin this hidden craving. "We cannot allow Pakistan to disintegrate. So who is the saviour? The army can do it. Nobody else can do it." He does not realize that one great and welcome contribution he made was to discredit the army rule for ever.

The dictator sought "forgiveness" of his people in a perfunctory general way without any sign of remorse for whatever he had done. His self-righteousness is legion. In his book he faulted everybody who came in contact with him without admitting a single mistake of his own. The "apology" was more of a self-serving platitude and shameless assertion than any sincere admission."Only God is infallible", he said.

He refers to "mistakes" but what he actually committed were atrocious unpardonable crimes against this nation and its leaders for which he must be brought back to Pakistan, put on trial and made to expiate. The army chief and Mr. Asif Zardari let him go unscathed for personal reasons and even gave him guard of honour. They had no right to do that because he was guilty of crimes against the nation and its leaders. He committed treason by subverting the constitution twice, purging judiciary, imprisoning judges and their families, closing TV channels and unleashing state terror on peaceful protesters.

________

Source: Wichaar

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults.

WELCOME MISTER PRESIDENT

     
      Barack Hussein Obama has already assumed office as the 44th President of the United States of America. Just two days in office, he has introduced some major policy shifts. He seems to prove he has a vision - contrary to shortsighted approach by George Walker Bush who mainly believed in military solutions to every problem everywhere.

     As a sequel to this major change at the White House, we are inserting two posts here. In the first post by Eric Margolis, the existing, outdated, fruitless US policy against its only Communist neighbor in the Americas is reviewed. Eric has also some suggestions for the new American president. In the second post, Michael Carmichael tracks on what Obama primarily needs to do for his fellow Americans and the world. 
   These posts are being put up to enable WOP readers have some insight (with respect to US context) of the issues of immediate import for the new President. On global scale, Obama as a pragmatic young leader needs to take such steps, which can save this world from chaos that George W. Bush in collusion with his toadies like Tony Blair and Pervaiz Musharraf left as his legacy. A million dollar question, however, still remains. CAN HE DO it? The neocons who contributed towards Bush's doctrine of New World Order are still occupying important seats both at the White House as well as the Pentagon. Only time will tell whether the statesmanship of new US president brings tangible results: that he introduces a Universal World Order instead of this so called New Word Order!

by Eric Margolis

     The inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States of America has more of the mood of a second coming than the investiture of a new president. Of course, the Bush administration, the most catastrophic in memory, is an easy act to follow.

     Barack Hussein Obama brings a bounty of hope, whereas the Bush administration brought fear-mongering, wars, flirtation with fascism, and financial ruin.

     Some 80% of Americans in a recent poll are strongly positive about Obama. But now that Obama has taken office, reality is going to set in and the euphoria will quickly dissipate as the young president confronts truly gargantuan problems and Washington’s powers that be assert their influence and bind him with a thousand cords.

     Still, like most people, I am elated to see the departure of the sinister Bush administration and welcome the new president, a man of dignity, intelligence and strength. 20th Jan. 2009, was a majestic day for all Americans. As an American (and a Canadian) I am awfully proud. It’s been a long time since I felt good about my country.

     So all best wishes to our new president. I am happy I suggested that one of his first official acts should be to immediately close the shameful Devil’s Island at Guantanamo Cuba, (which he has already ordered on the very first day of taking office). He should now further order this base, an embarrassing relic of 19th Century American imperialism, returned forthwith to Cuba. His next step should be to ask Congress to end the hypocritical, idiotic 50-year embargo of Cuba.

     I am just back from Cuba, and here follows my observations on its 50th anniversary of Communist rule.

     H A V A N A – The 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s revolution has been a very modest, low key affaire, totally out of keeping with this island’s normally boisterous fiestas. Fidel remains gravely ill. He has been out of sight for the past two years, though he publishes news commentary from seclusion.

     Economically stricken Cuba is hanging on by its fingernails. Life is grim and hard on this beautiful but impoverished island. Food is rationed and scarce, public transport erratic, and blackouts common. Many people living in decrepit apartment buildings must haul buckets of water up numerous flights of stairs.

     In the early 1950’s (an era how seemingly as remote as Ancient Egypt), my parents used to bring me to Havana each winter, and we often joined Ernest Hemingway and his mistress Pilar for daiquiris at its fabled `Floridita Bar.’ He was big, vivacious man with a white beard and a rumbling laugh. I took an immediate liking to the famed writer, and he was very kind to me, telling me stories about the Spanish civil war and deep water fishing. I still have one of his books, inscribed, `to Eric, from his friend Ernest Hemingway, Havana, 1951.’

     Eight years later, a Communist lawyer named Fidel Castro Ruiz stormed ashore with 81 men to begin a guerilla war against the US-backed Batista dictatorship. Cuba was then a virtual American colony: Americans owned 60% of Cuba’s farmland and industry. But, contrary to Communist history, the island was not a wasteland of gangsters, prostitutes and oligarchs. It was the West Indies’ most developed, prosperous island with a well-developed middle class and a living standard that was near the top of Latin America’s.

     On 1 January, 1959, Castro’s guerilla fighters arrived in Havana and proclaimed a revolutionary republic. For the first time in its long history (Havana is 50-70 years older than New York City), Cuba was genuinely independent of Spanish rule and American domination.

     Once Castro was in power, his comrade-in-arms, Ernesto `Che’ Guevera, today an icon of romantic revolution to the uninformed and juvenile, ordered the execution of over 600 `bourgeois.’ Che then went off to the Congo to wage revolution but found cannibalism instead of a waiting proto-Marxist proletariat and was quickly run out of the chaotic country by the CIA.

     Undaunted, Che headed to Bolivia, where he got killed leading a farcically inept Marxist revolution. That nation’s dirt poor peasants rejected Che and turned him in. CIA’s famed agent, Felix Rodriguez, finished off Che. But, as Che rightly observed, `revolutionaries never die.’ His memory went on to live as a pop image on t-shirts and berets around the globe.

     Che’s fiascos notwithstanding, in an era when America bullied and exploited Latin America, and treated its people with contempt and scorn, Castro’s revolution was a triumph. His resistance to 50 years of US efforts to overthrow or assassinate him, and a near-lethal embargo, was epic. Recall that this was the era when most of Latin American was ruled by US-backed military dictators or civilian oligarchs.

     US attempts to topple Castro nearly led to nuclear war with the USSR in 1962. The Soviets rushed nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba to thwart a planned US invasion. The US imposed a naval blockade of Cuba and massed forces for an invasion. Nuclear war was very close. I was a student at Washington’s Georgetown University at the time and vividly recall how frightened we all were.

     In the end, Moscow won the confrontation, though Americans were led to believe by White House spin, their media, and Hollywood that President John Kennedy was the victor. Moscow withdrew its missiles in exchange for the US agreeing never to invade Cuba and pulling its missiles out of Italy and Turkey. Castro was saved by Moscow.

     In recent years, KGB veterans of the Cuban missile crisis have claimed that Castro begged Nikita Khrushchev to fire nuclear weapons at the US mainland. Moscow refused.

     The cost of maintaining Cuba’s independence and dignity was poverty, dictatorship, and quickly becoming a Soviet satellite until the USSR collapsed in 1991. Today, only oil-rich Venezuela and Canadian tourists are keeping battered Cuba afloat.     

     Havana, once called `the naughtiest city on earth,’ is a museum of the 1950’s: decaying, melancholy, dark and depressing.

     Cuba has one of Latin America’s best medical and education system, and highest literacy. But life in Cuba is punishing: food and power shortages, endless queuing, grinding poverty and constant supervision by secret policemen and Communist party informers – in short, tropical Stalinism.

     Castro blames this misery on the US embargo. The US blames Castro’s failed Stalinist economics for the mess. In fact, both are responsible. Cuba has suffered fifty years of the kind of pitiless collective punishment that Gaza has been experiencing, just in slower-motion.

     The US has maintained its crushing boycott under the laughable pretexts that Havana holds 200 political prisoners and is Communist. Yet the US cheerfully deals with Communist China and Vietnam, and itself holds 36,000 Iraqi political prisoners, not to mention Guantanamo. America’s ally Israel holds 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners.

     It’s high time the West Indies’ largest island was welcomed back to this hemisphere and given civilized treatment. A recent poll showed that even 55% of Miami’s once fanatically anti-Castro Cubans now support ending the US embargo. On an interesting side note, Fidel Castro used to warn black and mulatto Cubans, who are about 60% of the population, that the US was a deeply racist nation that hated blacks. The election of Barack Obama has exploded that argument. Cubans are just as agog over Obama as everyone else.

    Chinese influence is moving into Cuba, and Russia is reasserting its strategic presence by rearming Cuba’s obsolete military forces. So the US has little time to lose.

     First Fidel, and now Raul Castro, have been happy to keep the US at arm’s length by provoking occasional crises. An end to US-Cuban hostility could bring up to two million US tourists. The creaky Communist control system could not withstand this invasion. Nor could the Spartan tourist infrastructure.

     Young Cubans are yearning for the kind of anti-Communist revolution that swept Eastern Europe. So the Party, which refuses to implement Chinese-style reforms, may keep Cuba frozen in time.

     As I wrote from Havana eight years ago, there will be no major changes until Fidel Castro, whom just about all Cubans regard as their nation’s beloved `papa,’ finally dies.

     The age of Yankee imperialism in Latin America is over. Cuba raised the banner of revolt, and paid the price. Now is the time for Cuba to rejoin the polity of Latin American democratic nations as a member in good standing. America, I hope, will by now have learned to treat Cuba with dignity, respect and economic restraint.

Eric Margolis, contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada, is the author of War at the Top of the World. Copyright © 2009 Eric Margolis